As a blues harmonica player and teacher, Adam Gussow has few peers in the business.Currently an Associate Professor of English and Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi with a specialty in blues literature and culture, Gussow was one of the first amplified blues harp players to make overblows a key element of his stylistic approach, adapting Howard Levy's innovations in the late 1980s in a way that helped usher in a new generation of overblow masters such as Jason Ricci and Chris Michalek.According to a reviewer for American Harmonica Newsletter, Gussow's playing is characterized by "technical mastery and innovative brilliance that comes along once in a generation."

A student of the New York blues harp legend Nat Riddles (1952-1991), Gussow is best known for his long partnership with Mississippi-born guitarist and one-man-band Sterling "Mr. Satan" Magee as the duo Satan and Adam.After working the streets of Harlem from 1986 to 1991, Gussow and Magee duo toured internationally between 1991 and 1998.Their performing credits include the Chicago Blues Festival, the Newport Jazz Festival, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, The King Biscuit Blues Festival, the Kansas City Jazz & Blues Festival, the Philadelphia Folk Festival and RiverBlues Festival, and more, along with hundreds of club gigs.They toured with Bo Diddley and opened for Buddy Guy, David "Honeyboy" Edwards, Otis Clay, Johnny Winter, and Jimmy Thackery.They released two albums on Flying Fish Records, including the W. C. Handy-nominated Harlem Blues (1991) and Mother Mojo (1993).Later releases include Living on the River (1996) and, on the Modern Blues Harmonica label, Word on the Street:Harlem Recordings, 1989 (2008) and Back In The Game (2011). In 2008, after a decade-long hiatus, Satan and Adam came back on line, and they've played occasional festival and club gigs ever since. In 2013 they made a triumphant return to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (see video below).

In 1996 Satan and Adam were the cover story in Living Blues magazine; according to editor David Nelson, Gussow enjoyed the curious honor of being "the first white blues musician to be so prominently spotlighted in the magazine's 26-year history."

My own harmonica teacher,

the great Nat Riddles

(1952-1991)

In addition to his career with Magee, Gussow has worked in duo, band, and studio settings with guitarists Charlie Hilbert, Irving Louis Lattin, Wild Jimmy Spruill, Robert Ross, Bill Abel, Andrew "Shine" Turner, Bill Sims, Jr., and Brian Kramer.He has released two albums with Hilbert on the Modern Blues Harmonica label:Blues Classics (2007) and Live in Klingenthal(2008).In his recent incarnation as a one-man band, Gussow takes a cue from Magee and does it all-singing, blowing amplified harp, and stomping out some thump-and-metal grooves.Gussow's first solo album, Kick and Stomp (2010), spent many weeks at #1 in the "Hot New Releases in Acoustic Blues" chart at Amazon mp3's. It also received extensive airplay on Bluesville (SiriusXM), America's premier satellite radio blues show, and rose to the #2 position in the "picks to click" category. His second solo album, Southbound (2011), expands the one-man band sound with the help of Mississippi's finest session musicians, including bassists Jerry Jemmott and Dave Woolworth; it takes Gussow's distinctive mix of blues, jazz, and down-home funk to the next level. Southbound spent most of March and April 2012 at the #1 position on the Mississippi Roots Rado Airplay Chart.

Currently, Gussow is recording and touring with Mississippi blues veteran Alan Gross in a duo known as the Blues Doctors. Their first album, Roosters Happy Hour, was released in the fall of 2013. Gussow has also recently signed a licensing deal with Right Recordings, an indy label in the UK, which will distribute Kick and Stomp worldwide. A spring 2014 launch and a major UK publicity campaign are planned.

Gussow is known to harmonica students around the world as a result of his "dirty-South blues harp channel" at YouTube and his pioneering offerings in the field of digital-download video tutorials at his website, Modern Blues Harmonica.Gussow's other musical credits include a stint with the bus-and-truck tour of Big River; several decades as a blues harmonica instructor at The Guitar Study Center in New York and in private practice; and a nine-time coach at Jon Gindick's Blues Harmonica Jam Camps. He's also headlined the Mundharmonika-Live festival in Klingenthal, Germany (2008) and has taught at Blues Week in the UK (2008).In the spring of 2010, Gussow added a new credit line to his resume´ as the creator and promoter of Hill Country Harmonica, a two-day intensive that drew more than 100 players from 30 states and 7 foreign countries to Foxfire Ranch in north Mississippi to study with Billy Branch, Billy Gibson, Johnny Sansone, and other top pros.HCH 2011 drew almost 150 players and featured Sugar Blue, Jason Ricci, Charlie Sayles, Jimi Lee, Deak Harp, and Brandon Bailey, among others. HCH 2012 featured Billy Branch & Sons of Blues, Mitch Kashmar, Phil Wiggins, and Dr. "Feelgood" Potts, along with Annie Raines and Todd Parrott.

In August 2011 I sat for an extended interview with David Barrett of BluesHarmonica.com. It offers a comprehensive look at my own journey on the harp, at the outlines of the craft (positions, techniques, wisdom), and at the future of blues harmonica in the 21st Century--including the ever-present YouTube videos that we've all come to depend on for information about the contemporary scene. It comes as twenty 7-10 minute videos bundled into a big zip file. It costs only $5 and you can access and preview it HERE.

Finally, here are a few videos that will give you a vivid sense of who I am and what I do.

In May 2013, I appeared with my longtime guitar-man Sterling "Mr. Satan" Magee in the blues tent at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival:

In July 2012 we played a festival in West Virginia:

My long career with Sterling began back in 1986, on the sidewalks of Harlem, where we played together on a near-daily basis for five years. The "street days," as I call them, strengthened every element of my playing, molding me into the blues musician I am today. The trailer for a forthcoming documentary gives you the flavor of that proving ground:

My debut music video, a solo performance of "Crossroads Blues" recorded in July 2010, had 250,000 hits on YouTube before YT deleted it for "violating community standards." I'm a dangerous man! I've re-uploaded it so you can be freshly scandalized by it. (The dancer and singer need more time in the woodshed, but the harp player and drummer are feeling it):

Here's a 2012 music video featuring an original instrumental composition of mine, a joyously funky blues called "Thunky Fing Rides Again." My approach to the harmonica here--it's played in third position with an unusual and prominent 5 overblow--is one reason this website is called MODERN blues harmonica:

....and here's a performance from the early days of Satan and Adam: Friday night at the 1993 Philadelphia Folk Festival in front of 15,000 fans. We're playing "Sunshine in the Shade," followed by "Will It Go Round in Circles." Watch Sterling Magee kick and stomp on that latter song and you'll know why becoming his sideman for many years is the greatest gift a young blues harmonica player could ever receive: